Italy's centre-left opposition parties have built up a substantial stock of shared positions over the past four years, according to an ANSA review of the bills, motions, resolutions and amendments they have tabled, although a handful of issues still divide them.
Labour and social policy is the field where agreement is widest. The parties converge on a minimum wage, starting from a base proposal of nine euros an hour that could rise to ten to account for inflation, and on cutting working hours while keeping pay unchanged, a point shared by the Democratic Party (Pd), the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Avs. The M5S would add the restoration of an updated citizens' income, a proposal that should meet little resistance from the Pd and Avs. Italia Viva (Iv), which is open to a minimum wage provided it does not bring higher taxes, would rather see a poverty-support mechanism along the lines of the Rei.
On health and schools, the parties from Avs to Iv and Più Europa aim to raise health spending by progressively aligning it with the EU average, make provision more uniform across the country and cut the waiting lists that push citizens towards private care. Giuseppe Conte adds a reform of how the directors-general of hospital trusts are appointed. On schools, the shared goals are more resources for public education and universities, free nursery schools and greater use of extended school hours.
Citizenship proposals differ without diverging sharply. The Pd wants to combine ius soli and ius scholae, while the M5S, Avs and Iv have come out in favour of ius scholae. Più Europa, which has promoted a referendum on the subject, wants to cut from ten to five the years of legal residence in Italy required to apply for citizenship, which would then be automatically passed on to minor children.
On the economy, a package of measures unites the wider centre-left and the centrists: a tax reform geared towards progressivity, a more favourable income tax regime for young workers such as the Renzians' start tax, and a structural pension reform built around progressivity and new forms of flexible retirement. Avs has proposed a wealth tax applying only to fortunes above five million euros, an idea that has so far failed to gain traction although part of the Pd agrees with it; the M5S prefers a tax on big tech and on the extra profits of large companies.
Foreign policy is where the long-standing divisions surface first. The M5S and Avs argue it is time to halt arms supplies and pursue the diplomatic route entirely, while the Pd, whose position is also much debated internally, holds that support cannot be interrupted and is the basis on which to build a just peace. The positions of the Pd, M5S and Avs on recognising the state of Palestine and on sanctions against Israel have become increasingly consolidated over time, while the centrists have consistently backed the more equidistant formula of "two peoples, two states". On the European and international front, the centre-left, despite maintaining different approaches, has recently found a synthesis in calling for a radical reconsideration of NATO commitments, for averting new increases in arms spending and for a wholesale revision of the Stability Pact.
Sources: ANSA Politica.